Kudos to the Catholic Bishops of America. They have published a document that beautifully states the teaching of the church on this matter all through history.
We know scientific certainty that at concept the matter of a human being is present. And, we know with moral certainty that God infuses this matter with a human soul sometime early during the pregnancy. As Christians, we combine these two things, in the words of St. Jerome, that which has the potential to be human is to be treated as human. Therefore, it is a grave moral matter whether or not God infuses a human sould into the matter at conception or a buit later. (For that matter, human sexuality and the female are to be venerated as the vessels through which God sends his children into this world.) As to whether abortion during the first few weeks of a pregnancy is to be treated as a crime or something else, the church cannot say.
A person who does not believe in God or in the human soul or in the sacredness of each person as a child of God, would have a different position. Such a person, being completely materialistic, could say that a person is defined merely as the physical stuff of a person, and therefore have to defend the rights of all human beings from conception. Of course, we do not know of any godless socialists who actually say this. And, the reason why we don’t is because without God there are no rights for anybody. We all have equal rights in having no rights. The only so-called rights we have are those that the state gives us. Accordingly, not only abortion, but euthanasia or mercy-killing, population control, eugenics, and all kinds of state-sanctioned killing is conceivable.
That’s it. It’s either the culture of life or the culture of death. We are either the children of God or else the state devolves to way in which we organize the war of all against all, and is little different from anarchy. Christians and all people of faith look into the abyss of godless socialism and are horrified. Godless socialists look into the abyss and love it.
Very true. EVERYONE realizes that, in the absence of medical complications or trauma, a fertilized egg WILL become a human being and NOTHING ELSE.
It’s either the culture of life or the culture of death. We are either the children of God or else the state devolves to way in which we organize the war of all against all, and is little different from anarchy. Christians and all people of faith look into the abyss of godless socialism and are horrified. Godless socialists look into the abyss and love it.
Very well stated.